NOXUBEE COUNTY — Construction for a new $418 million strand board lumber plant in Noxubee County is slated to begin in early 2024.
During a groundbreaking ceremony held Monday at the new site just North of Shuqualak, Huber Engineered Woods CEO Brian Carlson said the North Carolina-based company began dirt work and clearing on the 551-acre property in September. Huber is now awaiting approval for its air emissions permit from the Environmental Protection Agency before putting in the foundation.
“We’re hoping to have that by January,” Carlson said. “We feel really good about the timing of the project. Once that permit is in hand, we’ll be able to really start going after the foundation work and the concrete work. So we are on time.”
Once that is done, the plant will be built and completed by late 2025. It is expected to open in 2026, employing 158 people with an average annual salary of $80,000.
Huber Engineered Woods is a subsidiary company of J.M. Huber Corporation, which was founded in 1883. Huber has built five other strand board mills in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Maine, Georgia and Virginia. Carlson said this was the company’s largest mill so far.
Once operational, the plant will manufacture OSB wood panels, which are similar to particle board and are typically used for subfloors in residential and commercial construction.
“We started looking at this site in 2022,” Carlson said. “We also looked primarily in Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas and looked at multiple sites. We ultimately identified Noxubee County as the best in terms of all the criteria we needed, such as road infrastructure, labor force availability and the lumber we needed to supply the plant. So a really good combination of factors led us to Noxubee County.”
Noxubee County Board of Supervisors President Eddie Coleman said the company locating there is a huge win for the county to decrease its unemployment rate in the years further to come.
According to the most recent unemployment data released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, Noxubee County’s unemployment rate currently sits at 6.3% — one of the highest in the state — with 200 unemployed people.
“This new business for Noxubee County will bring a benefit for a long time,” Coleman said. “… When the plant opens in 2026, People won’t have to go very far to find a good job.”
Gov. Tate Reeves, who spoke at the event, spoke highly of the deal and said it represented the latest in a long line of private companies investing in Mississippi.
“To everyone that is here today, I say congratulations on what you are doing to make this part of this country a little bit better and create a little bit more of an opportunity to encourage more capital investment in our state, the creation of more jobs, and also making this great state of ours an even better place to raise a family,” Reeves said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion